Snatch and grab of innocent protester

[Xenotime]

Run time: 00:34 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8CNa_viKg0   Posted on YouTube: September 25, 2009 By YouTube Member: g20media Views on YouTube: 982214   Posted on DU: September 25, 2009 By DU Member: Xenotime Views on DU: 4182

 
Why is this happening?

[Bonobo]

1. Holy shit! WTF was that? Is that Pittsburgh!?

That didn't look right! Like some paramilitary thugs! They weren't even identified as police.

Man that was scary!

[Xenotime]

2. Yes. It appears to be right here in the US..

They didn't even identify themselves. What is Obama doing allowing this to happen?

[wysimdnwyg]

3. Smoke

At the end of the clip, you can see a column of smoke in the street. Do we know what caused that? It looks like a smoke grenade went off. (Seems like too much for a simple smoke bomb like one could get from a fireworks vendor.) Could the "innocent protester" have set that off, causing the "arrest"?

[spiritual_gunfighter]

4. How do you know he is innocent? n/t

[unapatriciated]

13. we don't know....

but we also don't know who the hell grab him.
Is that how we now make arrests by 'disappearing' people off of the street?

[spiritual_gunfighter]

32. Again like I said before

We dont know the circumstances surrounding this incident. I am usually pretty critical of the cops when vids are posted on DU. This one not so much.

[humbled_opinion]

36. LOL you got to be kidding right?

There is absolutely no excuse for military to intercede in local law enforcement issues if this country has come to that we are all done for. Now as far as this video is concerned since Posse Comitatus is law this cannot be real. Potentially a set up video to stir the Libruls.... LOL the Rightwing tards will stop at nothing.

[MNDemNY]

37. lol, indeed. This really appears to be an act.

sorry, but it does.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

45. Another interesting thing

I have a friend on my band's My Space site that posts all kinds of NWO Obama is the Illuminati type shit. He and all the other NWO types are losing their shit over this video and it is making the rounds in the Alex Jones paranoid conspiracy circles. I really dont believe this video is legit for a second.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

61. There is no excuse for military intervention in police matters

but this is completely staged which is why I said we dont know the whole story. This video is making the rounds and is a staged event. Nice try I guess though.

[Name removed]

39. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[fascisthunter]

42. well, seeing the military involved, dontcha think this is a bit over-the-top

[GillesDeleuze]

56. kill them all and let god sort em out, right?

even on democratic underground, people beg for a police state.

great.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

58. Obviously you will fall for anything

This is a fake video that is making the rounds.

[90-percent]

5. Wow!

America has the best police state in the whole world!

We're Number One!

I hope that kid has some people to help him! That is truly chilling and I hope we all do something more about this than preach to the choir on internet message boards!

If any vid deserved to go viral, this one does!

Does anybody have high quality info on what this was all about?

Devils advocate only - coulda been staged, perhaps?

-90% jimmy

[JDPriestly]

6. Looks like a police state.

Meanwhile, the tea-baggers brought guns to an Obama event and were not arrested. Strange country we live in. Just sayin'.

[joecool65]

7. STAGED

This is staged. Being from the Pittsburgh area and in the city yesterday, I can tell you this was a staged event.

[Bonobo]

9. Please explain.

I lived in Pitt too. What is your thinking? Why so sure it was staged?

[joecool65]

12. If you live in Pittsburgh, you should have heard about it

Plus, those were not the uniforms National Guard/military were wearing yesterday. Neither was that the vehicles they were driving.

This was just a bunch of idiots trying to make some point.
Are you really that gullible to fall for a video like this?

[pattmarty]

40. Are you fucking related to "Joe the Plumber"????? Just askin'.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

60. I am not aware of any military that wear those kind of fatigues anymore

completely staged.

[joecool65]

16. Also, if you live in Pittsburgh

you should be angry with all of those out of town protesters who were trying to trash the city.
Why don't we get the addresses of those protesters and go break windows and dump trash in their homes?

[Bonobo]

21. I said I "lived" in Pittsuburgh. 15 years ago. nt

[bowens43]

33. did someone break windows in your house? nt

[Why Syzygy]

41. When were you born? Yesterday? And where?

I keep reading your bitching about the protesters. This is AMERICA. We are ALLOWED to protest!
If you don't like it, go live somewhere else. Take a civics class. Or just shut the freak up about it. You are not on our side, dude.

[fascisthunter]

43. wtf does you being from Pittsburgh have anything to do with your assumption?

[Zywiec]

8. Who still wears the old style "BDUs"?

Those are no longer in use by the Army.

[Crowman1979]

10. The Police

[90-percent]

11. go to youtube link and read the comments

lots of conjecture that it was staged.

My question is about the SWAT type guys with rifles all in black seen at the end. If it was staged, would those people stand there and let something like this happen right in front of them?

definitely more to this than meets the eye!

-90% jimmy

[Zywiec]

22. I look at the :25 second mark and can see those SWAT types

in the upper left corner watching this go down.

Very strange.

[Fridays Child]

20. And the car they were driving. That was a civilian vehicle.

Blackwater-type ops? Near the end, you can see two guys with police vests on, one of them pointing a rifle, standing in front of the car. Chilling.

[jberryhill]

14. What is the plume of smoke/vapor in the middle of the street at about 28 seconds in?

That's the direction from which the person was brought.

What do you suppose happened there?

[PreacherCasey]

15. Goddammit! I'm sick of this shit. We need some independent confirmation that this is real and I'm

taking it to my congressman. We should all do the same. Who is with me?

[joecool65]

17. Some of your people sound like the left wing version of Fox

WE SAW IT ON YOUTUBE, SO IT HAS TO BE TRUE!

[PreacherCasey]

19. What part of "we need confirmation" don't you get? Go ahead with your bullshit buddy. nt

[Zywiec]

24. Why do you think so many cops are busted pulling all kinds of shit?

Regular people film it and place it on youtube.

I'm not saying I buy this hook, line and sinker, but I think videos from youtube can be very revealing.

[Ignis]

30. "your people" -- What a giveaway. (nt)

[YOY]

51. Yanno T, I try to explain what it's like to be from the midwest but it's more complex than you think

Honestly, there is a whole shitload of denial going on in these folks heads...

The midwestern RWer is not as an easily pegable beast as folks think here.

[Ignis]

53. You don't have to tell me, man...

I visit relatives in KY once a year or two. Our family's a bastion of great old-school KY Democrats, but the neighbors....

[YOY]

54. That's KY but I am sure fascinatingly backward. OH and Western PA/NY are interesting places.

Because they are industrialized (or were) cities that were pretty prosperous up until a few years. Now the bottom dropped out.

You've got folks who have decent educations and inferiority complexes (sometimes rightfully so.) who have habitually voted "conservative" because some folks played that complex like a fiddle. You remember when you mentioned "corn fields" of Ohio while gaming with me and kind of raised my hackles as a "city kid?" That's the midwesterner's inferiority complex. The feeling that folks on the west and east coast think that they are better than you and that you are a hayseed in their eyes. (and no I don't think that you or A. or any of the others think that way.)

Even when we are over it (as I'd like to think I am) we are never completely "over it."

[Ignis]

64. I hear you.

My mother--brilliant, talented, world-traveling woman that she is--still gets a bit prickly when reminded of her OH origins.

[Why Syzygy]

62. Isn't it?

I've been watching him. He has been all over DU criticizing the protesters and even the KITCHEN BUSES! He isn't our team.

[Ignis]

63. If peaceful protesters are allowed to EAT...

Then obviously the terrorists have already won!

[Why Syzygy]

65. Calls them "slackers" . right here >

joecool65 (131 posts) Tue Sep-22-09 08:31 AM
Response to Original message
5. The Seeds of Peace have been breaking the law
they have had their bus on someone's property. without permission Would you want a busload of people on your property without your permission?
Those slackers should either find a campground or other public place to park their bus, get hotel rooms, or find someone willing to house them.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Ignis]

66. Soon to be followed by "Get off my lawn," no doubt.

[fascisthunter]

46. you lost?

[YOY]

48. I smell a Ron Paul fan!

n.t.

[Joanne98]

67. Not a hoax. The officials have admitted to it. link

http://rawstory.com/2009/09/video-appears-to-show-us-tr...

[FarLeftFist]

18. This was common practice at our protests during the 2004 RNC in NYC

We all wore American flag bandana's over our faces and by the end of the RNC in NYC over 1200 arrests were made. Democracy?

[90-percent]

25. 2004 RNC

Yes, that was at the height of right wing fascist fervor.

People were stripped of their Constitutional rights and penned in chain link areas for hours turning into days, if I recall correctly?

have there been any class action lawsuits or other lawsuits for all those that had their Constitutional Rights violated during the NYC RNC 2004 protests?

regardless, events like outright police state actions should NEVER fade from our collective memories.

-90% jimmy

[Why Syzygy]

23. That is SCARY!

The thought does occur that he might have been an undercover provocateur.

But, if not? WTF? Who was that and where were they taking him? Why the unmarked car?

[Hoopla Phil]

26. This is posted in several places on the internet and being discussed. So far

most people that "would know" if this is real or not is saying that this in NOT real. The uniforms are not correct and mismatched. Notice the driver has the correct current issued boots but the others do not? There are no weapons present, none, not even a baton. You will also notice that the protester is not handcuffed before being put into the car.

There are too many "problems" for this to be legit. AT BEST this is local P.D. dressing up with what ever they have to extract one of their own. AT worst it is a strictly staged event to try and create a controversy that does not exist.

[DarthPortnoy]

49. Individuals

These are right wing individuals who are seeking to cause fear. This is NOT the first time this has happened in the last two weeks. This is only the first tme it was caught on tape.

[Hoopla Phil]

50. The evidence on the video shows that this is a staged event. Your speculation

is interesting but not based in any fact.

[theFrankFactor]

55. There is a holster visible at 00:11 on the right hip of the male in the light colored uniform.

Also, another possible holster on the black male to the left in the dark green.

I find it curious that the video shooter never gets the plate number.. ever.

[Hoopla Phil]

68. Is that really a holster or maybe just a cell phone? But let's say it is

a gun. Since when do solderers where their guns INSIDE their cloths?

[PreacherCasey]

27. Check these links if you think there is no precedence for this type of behavior and government agent

provocateurs.

Part 1 of a 3 part video. Full of local Seattle TV interviews with cops, business owners, and citizens. Also contains local news broadcasts, and footage from a town hall meeting where protesters (some look as old as 70) met to criticize the reaction of the police and question the ridiculous concessions given to the "anarchist" group who caused all the damage and commotion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mAWslHmiok

Noam Chomsky on COINTELPRO - "COINTELPRO was a program of subversion carried out not by a couple of petty crooks but by the national political police, the FBI, under four administrations...by the time it got through, I won't run through the whole story, it was aimed at the entire new left, at the women's movement, at the whole black movement, it was extremely broad. Its actions went as far as political assassination."

Here's the interview it is from (COINTELPRO stuff starts at 6:56): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG24vg8js4o

Here's some more info, I haven't fact checked all of it yet:

http://www.dickshovel.com/coin.html

[DarthPortnoy]

28. NOT STAGED!

Folks, is it any cooincidence that we had a Federal Census Worker LYNCHED the other week and now we see para-military goons kidnapping a protester in broad daylight? Plus we have the right wing smear campaign against the honest working volunteers of ACORN and the art community through the NEA.

Figuure it out. The Right wing is making their move. Pelosi was right... This is all going to end badly.

[Hoopla Phil]

34. STAGED! Please see post 26.

While I would not challenge your speculation, the evidence seen in the video points to this being staged.

[Xenotime]

57. Thank you for helping everyone connect the dots.

[IsItJustMe]

29. LOL. Freedom isn't free, but it get you busted up side your head. Welcome to facism folks.

[colsohlibgal]

31. Gestapo Days In America

I was one of a 100 or so at the health care protest at the main office of United Health Care in my area this week, we were peaceful, just holding up signs by the side of the road and chanting at times. No media there of course since we weren't birthers, but lots and lots of police were there, police in cars and on the ground, overkill and a show of potential force to the nth degree.

[bertman]

35. Staged?? By whom? For what purpose? If those were police officers in the black SWAT

gear there should be some information available as to why they allowed a kidnapping in broad daylight. Using the local landmarks and the time stamp on the video it should be easy to see who the police were who were assigned to that area.

Even if it was staged, it is a very dangerous precedent to set for Americans to see people being snatched off the streets by unidentified individuals.

Bad stuff.

[tomm2thumbs]

38. this is how Glenn Beck gets guests to appear on his show

and having said that, whatever it turns out to be cannot be good

[fascisthunter]

44. let me guess

the same people defending the teabagger with an assualt weapon at a town hall meeting in which the President was speaking at, are now taking the side of the military in this case.

[retired af major]

47. Not so fast ...

I thought I saw an MP armband on the person doing the shoving into the car. Mismatched uniforms are not a give away. These guys could be part of a joint task force made up of some marines, some army, and some air force. Not unusual for troops to be working out of a rental car. Not convinced one way or the other yet.

[Joanne98]

52. OMG

[Joanne98]

59. Raw Story reports.. NOT A HOAX!

http://rawstory.com/2009/09/video-appears-to-show-us-tr...